Some think court should stop Obama

December 21, 2013

What do you do if you're the president of the United States, your nation is crumbling and your poll numbers are the worst of any president since Richard M. Nixon?

If you're President Barack Obama, you stop talking about economic inequality, pack the wife and kids into a Boeing 747-200B and fly off to Hawaii for a 17-day vacation at an estimated cost of $4 million.

Iran remains a thorn. Syria continues to fester. Russia builds a new coalition (shades of the former Soviet Union). China lays claim to huge swaths of the East China Sea and South China Sea. Afghanistan and Iraq grow wilder by the day.

Aloha, President Obama.

Here at home: Congress and the White House dodge the nation's financial crisis. The economy continues to melt down. The Affordable Care Act wrecks more havoc on the nation's health care system (and your health). Scandals and lies erode our faith in government.

(A Gallup poll this week found that a record 72 percent of Americans believe big government is a bigger threat to the nation's future than is big business or big labor.)

One major scandal - Obama's National Security Agency spying on us - grew legs this week when a federal judge said he thinks the NSA is violating Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

The judge thinks that James Madison, who wrote our Constitution, would be "aghast." The case is likely to be settled in the Supreme Court.

Aloha, President Obama.

There's a sense throughout the land that the Obama administration is either not in control or out of control, and some people wonder what can be done about it. We have three more years of the Obama presidency, after all.

Impeachment? No. Out of the question, for several reasons.

For one thing, Obama still has a huge following in the black community, and any attempt at impeaching him would beg for the race card to be played. It could turn ugly.

Another thing: Too many people (Democrats) are invested in the Obama presidency and would fight impeachment tooth and nail.

Nevertheless, there may be a way to at least slow him down. He could be dragged into court and ordered to stop violating the Constitution.

That, in fact, is exactly what Republican Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina would like to do, and so he's sponsoring a resolution - HR 442, Stop This Overreaching Presidency - that would initiate court action forcing Obama to abide by the Constitution.

The measure has 29 co-sponsors in the House. Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia is not one of them.

Rice, in a letter to colleagues, says:

"President Obama has adopted a practice of picking and choosing which laws he wants to enforce. In most cases, his laws of choice conveniently coincide with his Administration's political agenda.

"Our Founding Fathers created the Executive Branch to implement and enforce the laws written by Congress and vested this power in the president. However, President Obama has chosen to ignore some of the laws written by Congress and implemented by preceding Presidents. "

Rice cites several examples (two involve Obamacare), and he wants a court to stop the practice.

Will it work? Don't hold your breath. But at least some members of Congress are willing to do more than issue press releases and sound-bites that satisfy constituents but accomplish nothing.

Aloha, President Obama.

Correction: In last week's column, the number of House Republicans opposing a "deal" on federal spending was incorrect. A total of 62 voted against the "deal." while 169, including West Virginia Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, voted for it.

The measure passed the Senate this week 67-33. The GOP vote was 12 for, 33 against.

Both West Virginia senators (Democrats Joe Manchin and Jay Rockefeller) voted for the measure.